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Thought Leadership in Healthcare: Here’s How You Build it

Thought leadership has emerged as a highly effective marketing tool in the healthcare industry in recent years. With an increasing number of people searching online for health information, healthcare specialists and wellness professionals have a wealth of opportunities to educate their potential customers and establish thought leadership in their area of practice.

According to a B2B Benchmark Study, nearly 50% marketers use content marketing to boost thought leadership and engage with their patients.

What is Thought Leadership?

Thought leadership is the process of gaining trust from consumers within an industry by sharing knowledge and becoming the go-to source of useful information. Thought leaders make a positive impact through education and innovation.

With more than fifty percent of smartphone users using their mobile phone to search for health information online, health professionals are waking up to the potential opportunities of nurturing thought leadership in their area of practice and connecting with prospective customers.

How to Become Healthcare Industry Thought Leader

Regardless of your area of practice and specialization, you can position yourself as a healthcare thought leader by incorporating a few simple steps.

Add Value to the Healthcare Ecosystem

Thought leadership begins with caring about the healthcare ecosystem and sharing your knowledge with the community. Whether you’re an experienced healthcare professional or a new medical clinic, you can start sharing useful information with the community on your blog or social media profiles. By sharing your knowledge on your blog or social media channels, you can slowly build a follower base, and influence their healthcare decisions. It’s a great way boost your patient outreach and authority within your industry.

Dr. Kevin Pho, MD, the author of KevinMD.com, and a social media influencer is a great example of thought leadership in the healthcare sector. By raising awareness on a wide range of healthcare topics on his blog and through his social media channels, Dr. Kevin has garnered valuable trust and authority for himself.

Share Quality Content

Even as sharing content is a great way to build yourself as a thought leader, you still need to be careful about the quality of your content. For example, it’s a best practice to back your claims and information with authoritative sources. Likewise, you can also offer credits to your peers whenever you mention their work or research. Citing the sources boosts the trust quotient of your content and makes it more reliable for your audience. Needless to say, it also builds your authority as you become the go-to destination for trustworthy healthcare advice.

Use Social Platforms for Thought Leadership

When it comes to building thought leadership in healthcare, blogging is the absolute first choice. However, if you’re too busy to write elaborate health advice pieces, you can leverage the power of social media platforms to share your knowledge and build authority. While sharing useful and reliable health advice, try to make it engaging and fun by adding relevant images and videos wherever possible.

Some of the most popular platforms used by healthcare organizations are Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn although YouTube and Instagrams are also preferred platforms for wellness clinics that share engaging and interactive videos. Philips Healthcare shares their innovations and sparks conversations through their LinkedIn forum “Innovations in Health”.

Likewise, you can also take advantage of podcast platforms such as SoundCloud to share healthcare advice and build thought leadership.

Apart from healthcare content marketing, healthcare professionals can also promote their leadership at public events such as public speaking and interviews on TV.

Highlight Your Clinic’s Achievements

You can extend your thought leadership efforts to position your healthcare organization or wellness brand by sharing its news and success stories on company’s website as well as it social media channels. Company’s home and about pages are your valuable assets which can be used to highlight the latest technologies, groundbreaking procedures, innovations and success achieved by your clinic. For example, Cleveland Clinic publishes a list of top ten healthcare innovations on their website every year, which makes it an authority resource in the healthcare industry.

Final Thoughts

Building thought leadership in the healthcare industry is a gradual process. It requires a consistent investment of time and money into creating informative digital assets. However, once you have built the trust among your followers, it pays off big time.